NEWS 

By Promise T. Chandilanga

There were thousands of participants for Zathu paWailesi’s “Mzanga wa Nyatwa” first ever competition. From all corners of Malawi, and week by week winners were announced on Zathu’s weekend Omnibus.

Yet for sure, residents of Kalumbu village in Nathenje in Lilongwe did not see it coming when Zathu Band and the whole cast was right live in front of their eyes at Kalumbu Community Day Secondary School, on that memorable day, July the 16^th as Zathu was hosted the competition’s grand finale.

Thanks to 16-year-old Thomson Mlenga, who boldly joined the competition and nominated his friend, 15-year-old Legeliah Sekerani and was lucky enough to win the grand prize; a chance to meet the Zathu Band and the whole Zathu cast right in their community.

As an honour to his former school, Mlenga chose to donate the grand prize to his former school Kalumbu CDSS where he had just wrote this year’s MSCE examinations and share his great gift with his friends despite that now he’s staying in area 23, Lilongwe.

After Zathu announced the beginning of Season 3 of its radio shows, it introduced a competition for Malawian youths in the first 4 weeks of the season. Entrants rated 12 to 18 years of age were supposed to text their name, age and location along with a friends’ name. They were supposed to explain why they were good friends with that person and how he or she reminded them of any of their favourite Zathu Pawailesi’s character.

The competition was wild and weekly winners were picked by Zathu talk show presenter C-zee and Goxy and read out on each weekend from 9^th June until the 1^st of July. There were 32 weekly winners from across the country and winners were receiving a Zathu bag with a radio/ speaker, so as to encourage them to continue listening to Zathu pa Wailesi with their colleagues.

Upon emerging the overall victor, Mlenga could not hide his excitement. He said being a fan of Zathu’s radio shows has helped him a lot in all aspects of life particularly in interacting with his friends and also in practising and encouraging platonic relationships among his friends regardless of their sex.

“I’m now able to interact with my friends not regarding any part of gender lesser. I nominated Legeliah because she’s my best friend and she taught me how to accept other people’s ideas when working on a group. To me, I related her to how at some point Chikondi told T-reel to accept ideas from others in the band to run the band in one of Zathu pa Wailesi’s dramas,” explained he.

Not only was the grand prize a live concert, but also Zathu crew made some refurbishments at Kalumbu CDSS. This were things like painting some of the school blocks, and painting the world map on one of the classes for the students, among others.

Minus interacting with the members of the band, both Mlenga and  Legeliah also received Zathu branded merchandise like bags, T-shirts, Notebooks, Speakers and wristbands. They also had a chance to choose their favourite Zathu Band’s songs to be played live for them.

To spice up the event the usual Zathu talk show presenters C-zee and DJ Goxy hosted the show. And the audience also had a chance to ask Gogo a few questions pertaining all sides of their lives as youths.

Asked why he opted for his former institution, Thomson Mlenga said Kalumbo has always been his home.

“Kalumbo has always been home, so I wanted to share this memorable experience with friends and also to give back to my community,” concluded he.